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symmetry |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Symmetry \Sym"me*try\, n. [L. symmetria, Gr ?; sy`n with together + ? a measure: cf F. sym['e]trie. See {Syn-}, and {Meter} rhythm.] 1. A due proportion of the several parts of a body to each other adaptation of the form or dimensions of the several parts of a thing to each other the union and conformity of the members of a work to the whole. 2. (Biol.) The law of likeness; similarity of structure; regularity in form and arrangement; orderly and similar distribution of parts such that an animal may be divided into parts which are structurally symmetrical. Note: Bilateral symmetry, or two-sidedness, in vertebrates, etc., is that in which the body can be divided into symmetrical halves by a vertical plane passing through the middle; radial symmetry, as in echinoderms, is that in which the individual parts are arranged symmetrically around a central axis; serial symmetry, or zonal symmetry, as in earthworms, is that in which the segments or metameres of the body are disposed in a zonal manner one after the other in a longitudinal axis. This last is sometimes called metamerism. 3. (Bot.) a Equality in the number of parts of the successive circles in a flower. b Likeness in the form and size of floral organs of the same kind regularity. {Axis of symmetry}. (Geom.) See under {Axis}. {Respective symmetry}, that disposition of parts in which only the opposite sides are equal to each other From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: symmetry n 1: (mathematics) an attribute of a shape; exact correspondence of form on opposite sides of a dividing line or plane [syn: {symmetricalness}, {correspondence}, {balance}] [ant: {asymmetry}] 2: balance among the parts of something [syn: {proportion}] [ant: {disproportion}]
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